In The Eyes of Their Heroes
by We Are The Final Shadow
Summary: Harry Potter never anticipated the changes that were to come. Mysteries unraveled, friendships called into question and who is this young man that Professor Dumbledore has assigned to mentor Harry? Things will become clear as the tournament progresses...though darkness always lurks around every corner. Suck at summaries. Rating for later chapters.


_Disclaimer: I own nothing, all rights to respective owners._

_In The Eyes Of Their Heroes _

_Chapter One: Sebastian Grey _

"Professor Dumbledore," the woman, a tall, rather severe-looking individual. She had black hair which was combed back into a tight bun. She looked the aging headmaster in the eye, "How are the preparations for the tournament coming along?"

The other figure in the room, a man who was tall and thin, with silver hair and beard so long that they could be tucked into his belt. He had a very long and crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken at least twice, looked up from the strange object he was peering over and turned back to look at her, "As well as can be expected, Minerva. The Ministry has taken to organzing most of it now. We've done our parts and they want to make sure that this tournament is a lot more low-risk than the last ones. I expect several discussions in the coming weeks about it, though there is still plenty of time until we need to be prepared. I have no doubts that we will be ready in time for the beginning of the school year."

"I must ask, Albus...why now?"

"My dear Professor, whatever do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean, Albus. Why hold the tournament now of all times. After so many years of it being inactive due to the danger presented to those involved?"

"Certain things are falling into place, Minerva. The time is ripe for our students to be exposed to other cultures and given the opportunity to form friendships that will last a lifetime. I used my pull with the Ministry to reinstate the tournament for these reasons. But do not worry so much, we will take every precaution to make sure that this one does not end as disastrous as the last few."

"You can't guarantee that, Albus!"

"I know I can't, but this is the best chance we have to bond the international community together."

"It's because you think he's gaining power again, isn't it?"

"You've always been perceptive, Minerva."

McGonnagall took the finality of Dumbledore's tone to mean that this line of conversation was over between the two of them. A soft sigh left her lips and taking the indicated sign, she changed the subject, "And have you heard back from Mr. Grey yet?"

"Not quite yet," Albus said, "But I am sure I will hear-"

At this very moment a burst of fire erupted in front of Dumbledore and an envelope fell to his desk. The envelope itself looked standard enough, yet there was a very beautiful handwriting scrawled across its surface.

_Albus Dumbledore _

_Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts_.

"Ah, right on cue, it seems."

Professor Dumbledore reached to the envelope and opened it, then extracted the letter inside.

_Professor Dumbledore, _

_It certainly has been a little while since the last time we spoke. Sorry about that, things have been rather hectic over here. Rowan's wanting to see some of the sights and keeps pulling us every which way so I've not yet had a chance to sit down and right this until now. Anyway, before I digress too far I will answer your questions. _

_I'm not sure about the first. I asked Rowan and he isn't really sure either. It does seem like the sort of trouble he and I would've got into whilst we were at Hogwarts but I don't recall anything like that when we were dealing with the vaults. _

_As for the second question, I can offer a little more. Ilvermorny seems a little hesitant to accept the offer to come to the tournament. I spoke to someone who has inside information and they weren't too keen on the dangerous aspect of it. I tried to change their mind, but they seem set on not getting their students involved, sorry Professor, I did my best. _

_Not even Penny could get them to budge a little and that's saying something. We've got about a week left here before we return home and we can talk more fully there. I don't think his influence reached here as much as over in England. _

_On The Third Question, I'm not sure, sorry that this is becoming a regular pattern with this letter, but the connection between 'R' and The Death Eaters seem limited at best. Not much I can research over here. Though, I'd like to think that R ceased to be a problem when my brother was carted off to Azkaban. _

_I wish I could offer you more, but this is all I have for the time being. _

_Hopefully we can have a proper catch-up once we've returned to England. For now I'd better go, Rowan wants to go to some Muggle areas and I'm not sure I can stave him off forever. _

_Wishing you well, _

_Sebastian H. Grey _

"Unfortunately, it's as I feared," Dumbledore murmured, more to himself than McGonagall, "He's almost as in the dark as we are."

"That's both good and bad news," Minerva agreed, "I suppose all we can do is wait for him and the others to return before we make any decisions. I doubt going to question Jacob in Azkaban would yield any answers either."

"I'm afraid you'd be correct, Minerva. I must consider our next actions very carefully."

"And what of Harry Potter? Surely…"

"For now, we do nothing. I cannot be sure that these signs in fact point toward his return, but at the very least, he should be trained. Prepared for what's to come. We must be prepared for anything. I have, admittedly, made many mistakes when it's come to Harry Potter over the last few years and I intend to change that to the best of my abilities."

"That's why you made contact with Mr. Grey isn't it?"

"His own time at Hogwarts was not much different to Harry's own and if anyone is capable of helping Harry prepare for his destiny it would be Sebastian. For the things Sebastian has not learned, I myself will be handling Harry's training I shall inform Harry of this once he returns to Hogwarts, for now I think it best for him to enjoy his Summer Holidays."

"You should probably write back to Mr. Grey asking if he'd be willing to teach him."

"I am aware of this," Dumbledore agreed, "But I'm sure Sebastian will be more than happy to help us out here."

X-x-x-x-x

"You finally finish what you're doing then?" Rowan asked his friend, a look of excitement in the man's eyes.

"Yeah, I have and for Merlin's sake, Rowan, you're acting like a hyperactive kid. Are we going to some amusement park or something?"

"Well, we are, actually. Penny suggested it. She and Merula are meeting us there actually."

"Please tell me that they had the foresight to give you proper directions, Penny would at least have attempted to, but us getting horribly lost on the way would be nothing short of a brilliant joke to Merula."

"Don't worry so much, Seb, I made sure that Penny was the one who gave me directions."

Sebastian released a breath he didn't know he was holding, then pushed himself up to his feet, "Well, in that case, there's no use putting it off, we'd better get going, don't want to give Merula a chance to come up with a practical joke of some sort while they're waiting for us to arrive."

"Didn't we patch that up years ago?" Rowan said, a little smirk on his face.

Sebastian shook his head, "Just because she's your girlfriend doesn't mean she's stopped enjoying those jokes, Rowan. I like Merula don't get me wrong, but there's always sort of been this rivalry between the two of us and that doesn't just go away because my friend is dating her."

"True, true."

"Alright then, let's go."

Sebastian and Rowan both collected their jackets and headed out the door. The moment they'd done so, they both turned on the spot and disappeared in perfect sync, both apparating out of the room with distinctive 'pops'.

They appeared a second later inside a darkened alleyway and Rowan smirked over at Sebastian, "Wait, you did apparation all wrong, how did you even know which destination to use? I didn't give you the instruction?"

"Oh, I just locked onto your magical core," Sebastian explained, "It's not exactly common knowledge, but if someone's skilled enough they can do that if the person they're traveling with is close-enough. It's sort of like side-along apparation without the need to be physically touching."

"Who taught you how to do something like that?" Rowan asked, surprised.

"It was in one of the books in my family library," Sebastian divulged, both he and Rowan walking out of the alleyway and onto the busy street before them. Sebastian fell into silence whilst he followed Rowan along the streets. The area was packed with Muggles, or as the Americans called them, NoMaj and Sebastian didn't want to risk further conversations about the abilities he'd picked up over the years since Hogwarts had finished in case it drew more attention to them than necessary.

"This way," Rowan said, indicating the path to the left. Sebastian only nodded, then followed Rowan down the path until finally a large sign came into view, revealing the location that he'd been brought to by his friend.

"Disney? Isn't that a whole bunch of kids stuff?"

"Well, yeah, according to Penny, but she's loved this place since she was a little girl and wanted to take us all here before we return to England."

"Figures, well, let's try and make the best of it then."

"Not amused at your girlfriend's choice of entertainment, then Seb?"

Sebastian just rolled his eyes and followed Rowan silently into the theme park to try and find Penny and Merula.

x-x-x-x- x

"Arthur! It's about time, son!"

"Sorry Amos, some of us had a sleepy start," Mr Weasley said, glancing back at Ron who'd just attempted in vain to conceal a yawn behind his hand.

A second later a tall and extremely handsome young man with chiselled features, dark hair, and bright grey eyes dropped from the trees above them and immediately moved to shake Mr. Weasley's hand as his father had done moments before.

"And this strapping young lad must be Cedric, am I right."

"Yes, sir."

Mr. Weasley nodded and headed off with Amos as Cedric fell back to exchange greetings round his fellow Hogwarts students. Together the group made their way through the trees and eventually came up to a hill overlooking the area where The Weasleys and presumably The Diggorys lived.

"Ah here we go."

"Why's everyone gathering round that manky old boot?"

"That's not just any manky old boot, mate, it's a portkey," George answered.

"What's a-"

"Harry!"

Harry rapidly reached out and grabbed the boot by the top the moment he heard Mr. Weasley's exclamation. Barely a moment after he'd grabbed it, Harry felt a small jerk behind his navel and all of a sudden, everything was rapidly spinning out of control as the ground beneath them fell away.

"Let go kids."

"What!?" Hermione exclaimed, practically aghast at the very idea of something like that.

"Let go!"

After a rather theatrical landing, Harry was helped to his feet by Cedric and the former offered thanks as Mr Weasley and Mr Diggory exchanged goodbyes. Once Cedric and his father had departed, Mr Weasley began leading his own group through the masses of crowds gathering for the event.

"How come Charlie, Bill and Percy didn't come with us?" Ron groaned tiredly.

"Well, they'll be apparating about lunch time, so they get a bit of a lie in," Mr Weasley explained.

"Can't wait until I'm of age," Ron muttered grumpily whilst falling into step behind his father and brothers, Harry and Hermione to either side of him.

"Yes, when you're of age you can sleep in as much as you want," Ginny shot at Ron, accompanied with a roll of her eyes, "But for now, shush."

"She's right, Ron, you can sleep in the tent while we wait and someone will wake you later if you feel it's that necessary to sleep some more," Hermione added, a roll of her eyes much like Ginny's being thrown out as well for good measure.

"Keep up kids," Mr Weasley called back to them, effectively silencing an argument no doubt brewing between Ron and Hermione, which Harry was privately thankful for. The two of them could be quite awful once they got going. He knew what the true reasoning behind it was, of course, but also realized that hell would be more likely to freeze over than for those two to come to terms with the fact of what the arguments really meant.

"Say, Fred, George," Harry called up slightly ahead of him, hoping to change subjects before his two best-friends could get going again, "What's your pick for the match?"

"Ireland win-"

"Wait," Ron interrupted suddenly, "Krum's like an eagle, there's no way Ireland will win."

"If you'll let us finish ickle Ronniekins, we were about to say that Ireland will win, but Krum will get the snitch. Just because Krum's the best Seeker in the world, it doesn't mean that the rest of the team holds that standard in their own positions. They're all a bit mediocre if we're honest."

"I'm not really sure how it's going to go down," Harry put in, "But it'll be interesting to see how much of another level these types of games are at compared to the Hogwarts ones."

"Mate, it's like nothing else, it makes the school games look slow," George said, a wistful grin on his face, "If it wasn't for wanting to own a joke shop one day, I'd love to play a game at that pace."

Smiles on all of their faces, Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Hermione and Ginny all followed Mr Weasley the final few paces to their campsite. Two identical tents stood side by side, the first was a little bigger than the second, but the reason was because it needed to look like it could fit more than just two people since the campsite was on Muggle land.

"Right, Hermione and Ginny, the tent to the right is yours and us boys will take the one to the left. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, go and pick your beds and drop your bags off then we'll organize who's going to gather what for the camp to make sure that we keep appearances up."

_End Chapter One. _


End file.
